Author: Ash Nallawalla

About Ash Nallawalla

Ash Nallawalla is a consultant enterprise SEO with a long background in large companies with complex websites. He is a published author of several books and thousands of magazine articles.

Google's Wonder Wheel

Search Engines No Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Google Search has announced two new features that may interest some people. The first is Related Searches, which appears below the SERP and the other is a longer snippet if the search term is four words or longer. Not exciting enough for me.
Wonder WheelHowever, Google Blogoscoped reported some testing of new features that were more interesting to me at first glance.
You won’t see the test unless your PC collects a special cookie. Blogoscoped has kindly provided it in the article, so you can insert it into your PC and see the new playthings for yourself. I first read about this in Webmasterworld where posts by FTFlash and Robert Charlton describe these new features (click the above image to enlarge it). Note; You must use google.com, not a national one such as google.com.au.
If you get the cookie, you will see “Show Options” next to “Web” below the Google logo. In the above image I selected Wonder Wheel, which is depicted in the image above. You will see related searches in the spokes but the wheel itself does not play any visual games. It is simply a backdrop to the related searches. Being in beta, I can’t be too critical, but I don’t find the feature useful. For many searches, the spokes do not appear and you can’t click the hub (your search term), so you are left wondering.
For my test I chose San Francisco, being home to most Googlers. I clicked “San Francisco Attractions”, which opened up a second spoked wheel linked to the original wheel. I next chose “San Jose Attractions”, whereupon the original wheel becomes an outlined circle. For each selection you make, you get organic search results in the right half of the page and at the bottom you get a columnar list of the related searches seen in the Wonder Wheel. Strangely, I got “San Jose, Costa Rica Attractions” and “San Jose Costa Rica Attractions” (no comma the second time).
The Wonder Wheel will probably be a gimmick for me as I don’t run my applications in full screen mode and need to see most of the screen in a smaller window. What did you think of it?
The second new choice on the left is a Timeline for the current search term. This operates in a true AdWords broad match sense and made no sense for my “San Jose Attractions” search term (minus quotes). The timeline started in 1602 with a reference to the namesake San Jose in Panama. The next one in 1610 is in Mexico. And on it goes, giving unnecessary information for a query that started in San Francisco. The sixth result is the one in Silicon Valley.
The third new feature is Search Suggestions, 16 of which appear above the Onebox map and 10 local results. These did relate to San Jose, CA and were quite relevant.
Choosing “Images from the page” show two thumbnails next to each result, which would be popular for some searches.
In all these new features I did not see any AdWords, so I don’t know how messy the page will look with ads. Some people have reported slightly different test options. Let’s wait and see how these features morph into their final version.

Google’s Wonder Wheel

Search Engines No Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Google Search has announced two new features that may interest some people. The first is Related Searches, which appears below the SERP and the other is a longer snippet if the search term is four words or longer. Not exciting enough for me.

Wonder WheelHowever, Google Blogoscoped reported some testing of new features that were more interesting to me at first glance.

You won’t see the test unless your PC collects a special cookie. Blogoscoped has kindly provided it in the article, so you can insert it into your PC and see the new playthings for yourself. I first read about this in Webmasterworld where posts by FTFlash and Robert Charlton describe these new features (click the above image to enlarge it). Note; You must use google.com, not a national one such as google.com.au.

If you get the cookie, you will see “Show Options” next to “Web” below the Google logo. In the above image I selected Wonder Wheel, which is depicted in the image above. You will see related searches in the spokes but the wheel itself does not play any visual games. It is simply a backdrop to the related searches. Being in beta, I can’t be too critical, but I don’t find the feature useful. For many searches, the spokes do not appear and you can’t click the hub (your search term), so you are left wondering.

For my test I chose San Francisco, being home to most Googlers. I clicked “San Francisco Attractions”, which opened up a second spoked wheel linked to the original wheel. I next chose “San Jose Attractions”, whereupon the original wheel becomes an outlined circle. For each selection you make, you get organic search results in the right half of the page and at the bottom you get a columnar list of the related searches seen in the Wonder Wheel. Strangely, I got “San Jose, Costa Rica Attractions” and “San Jose Costa Rica Attractions” (no comma the second time).

The Wonder Wheel will probably be a gimmick for me as I don’t run my applications in full screen mode and need to see most of the screen in a smaller window. What did you think of it?

The second new choice on the left is a Timeline for the current search term. This operates in a true AdWords broad match sense and made no sense for my “San Jose Attractions” search term (minus quotes). The timeline started in 1602 with a reference to the namesake San Jose in Panama. The next one in 1610 is in Mexico. And on it goes, giving unnecessary information for a query that started in San Francisco. The sixth result is the one in Silicon Valley.

The third new feature is Search Suggestions, 16 of which appear above the Onebox map and 10 local results. These did relate to San Jose, CA and were quite relevant.

Choosing “Images from the page” show two thumbnails next to each result, which would be popular for some searches.

In all these new features I did not see any AdWords, so I don’t know how messy the page will look with ads. Some people have reported slightly different test options. Let’s wait and see how these features morph into their final version.

Democratisation of the Web or Copyright?

General 1 Comment
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Two news stories a world apart remind me that doing something quickly and cheaply is not always appreciated, at least by some vested interests.

The first story is about the first CIO of the United States. Indian-born, but raised in Tanzania and the US, Vivek Kundra. Apparently this wunderkind has impressed Barack Obama enough to create this position, where he will be tasked with lowering the cost of government operations through the use of technology.

To quote the linked article:

In just 19 months with the District, Mr. Kundra has moved to post city contracts on YouTube and to make Twitter use common in his office and others. He hopes to allow drivers to pay parking tickets or renew their driver’s licenses on Facebook.

An earlier article in the Washington Post mentions his time as CTO of the District of Columbia where he questioned a $39,000 price tag to reassign the IP addresses of a network.

“Why would that take $40,000?” he snapped. “This project seems like a sham right now. We need to take the happiness level down for this one.”

The “happiness level,” a measure of a project’s success, is just one of the tools Kundra, 34, has developed in his quest to improve the way the District’s 86 agencies use technology. In the 18 months since joining Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration, Kundra has gotten attention for taking an unconventional approach to government, which is not typically first to adopt the latest computing trends.

Kundra has introduced popular consumer tools to bureaucratic processes, runs his office like a tech start-up and works by the mantra that citizens are “co-creators rather than subjects.”

And this:

The bidding process for city contracts is posted on YouTube, for example, and his employees use versions of Wikipedia and Twitter in the office. He wants to let drivers pay parking tickets and renew driver’s licenses on Facebook.

In October, he launched a contest called “Apps for Democracy” to encourage developers to create applications for the Web and cellphones to give District residents access to city data such as crime reports and pothole repair schedules.

Comments left by readers are polarised. Some love his approach; one wrote bitterly:

1. It costs money to bid the project- This means Bid and Proposal work needs to be performed. Contracts people, legal, and all of these things contribute to contract costs.

2. Contractors cost money. I don’t work for wages as a citizen of Pakistan or India. I reside in Northern virginia and the cost of living is just a bit more than that hut in a major city in India or Pakistan.

There’s nothing in the articles to suggest he outsourced anything to offshore workers, but I like his approach. I don’t believe he is replacing stodgy computer systems entirely with Facebook applications written by contest winners – he is simply adding a way for people to use familiar technology.

That story takes me to the second incident closer to home. Asher Moses reported that a Sydney programmer is being threatened with legal action by NSW authority RailCorp for selling Transit Sydney, an iPhone app that he sells for AU$2.49. It enables users to get the publlished suburban train timetables on their iPhones.

The programmer, Alvin Singh, is quoted as suggesting that RailCorp is in the “planning stages” of getting their own iPhone application on the market, but he doesn’t think a government body could do this “any time soon”.

There is also the matter of copyright of the timetable compilations, as this application merely repurposes that static information, not up-to-date situational facts such as cancellations and delayed schedules. Fair enough — a commuter would rather have the latest data.

Both incidents remind me of an ever-present struggle between entrepreneurs who want to “knock up” something and use it and the traditionalists who want things done the “right way”. My guess is that RailCorp would take at least three people and about $50,000 to create that application — a business analyst, a developer and a tester, whereas Mr Singh probably knocked it up in a weekend.

Should three jobs be at risk because a citizen took the initiative and launched a rather basic app? I hope not, but I wish RailCorp simply released their application rather than pursue Mr Singh. Commuters can decide which one they’d rather use.

Similarly, US citizens are justified in wondering if government projects will be offshored to save money at the cost of local jobs. OTOH, US taxpayers would rather see their contributions spent frugally and wisely. There are no clear-cut answers here.

Charlie Rose interview with Marissa Mayer

Search Engines No Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

There is a shorter version on YouTube, but it is worth hearing all 54 minutes of this interview by Charlie Rose with Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Product and User Experience, Google.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docId=2130473232539454111[/googlevideo]

He next interviewed Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google:

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docId=8240499345320964787[/googlevideo]

Close down your competitor via Google Maps?

Local Search No Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Google Maps example of place closedSearch Engine Roundtable has an interesting post by Barry Schwartz about how Google Maps makes it easy for anyone to edit a business listing to say that it has closed permanently. I knew that Circuit City will shut its doors forever tomorrow and I looked for one that had already been marked “Place Closed” in Google Maps. No, that wasn’t me, as it seems that someone at Google has to approve these submissions. Read Barry’s article for a full account of how this happens. The problem shouldn’t worry anyone who has claimed their entry, but unclaimed entries without a point of contact may make it impossible for Google to check with the business owner. As this news spreads, I expect the feature’s process to be tightened up.

Looking for local results?

Local Search Search Engines 2 Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

This is not news in North America, where Google introduced last July an input field for your postcode or suburb presumably so that subsequent results would be localised for you. I just saw it for the first time in Australia.

This appears to be a test, as I could not reproduce it for other words I tried, e.g. pillows. It would seem that certain words have been identified as “local shopping” keywords, and Google would like to display results that it presumes come from local businesses.Localisation testing in Australia

For a normal search, the URL is:

http://www.google.com.au/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&q=mattresses&btnG=Search&meta=

When I add a postcode, the URL becomes:

http://www.google.com.au/search?oi=local&ct=location-input-top&q=mattresses&num=100&site=search&hl=en&newwindow=1&output=search&sa=G&near=3000

I didn’t notice any difference in the SERP other than the input box disappeared after I nominated my postcode, so this test might be limited to seeing how many people use it.

Nonetheless, this supports my previous post that SEO will get harder as more and more users begin to localise their results. They don’t need to log in but some people will not remember many months later that they had localised their Google experience.

SEO is getting harder

SEO 2 Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

WebProNews reports yet another Google experiment for selected users where they see a “My preferred site” link to the left of the URL in a search result. The idea is that users who are constantly choosing certain sites will prefer to see results from those sites over others that might rank above it. Users need to log into their Google accounts to make this possible. I cannot see this experiment from Australia so far.

Some weeks ago, Google allowed logged-in users to vote out certain sites so that they would not be shown in subsequent searches. That alone promped SEOs to speculate that Google may well take these votes into consideration at some point. Google is already showing localised results in some parts of the US and now here is the latest experiment where positive votes are being studied.

Who knows – perhaps Google could compare both negative and positive votes from a large sample to smooth out artificial voting schemes? At the moment, one does not have to log into Google, but it wouldn’t be too difficult to introduce inducements that will compel the majority to be logged in. No other search engine poses even a mild threat, so there won’t be any likelihood of users defecting to other search engines.

Such uncertainty for ranking-centric SEO was a common theme at the recent Webmasterworld conference last November. Many of my SEO peers are in agreement that it is a matter of time before two users will see different rankings owing to personalisation and localisation. Most reputable SEO companies are no longer offering a “Top 10” ranking, so what are their customers buying?

I feel strongly that there will always be a place for applying proven on-page and off-page SEO techniques to websites to give them a fighting chance to rank high for someone, somewhere. If these sites also do “the right thing” and offer excellent, sticky content for their audience, then high rankings will be enjoyed by most users. What do you think?

Google Testing Enhanced Listings, Pagelinks & Auto-Spelling Correction

SEO 1 Comment
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Danny Sullivan has made a thought-provoking post concerning possible changes to the Google Search engine. It is about some testing that has been seen by some users. Do visit his site to read the details and see the images, but here is why some of these changes could be relevant to SEO:

  1. Enhanced Listings. Citysearch (US version) is supplying restaurant ratings to Google. I can’t see this test yet, but reading between the lines tells me that restaurant site owners may need to get into Citysearch and/or supply some restaurant data in a structured manner.
  2. Pagelinks. This is a new term coined by Danny. He is seeing search results where the snippet includes a “Jump to” to an anchor link on the same page. In the example search of “monopoly rules property” the destination page contains a menu at the top left, where the word “property” links to rules about that topic lower down the same page. This tells me that we may need to insert more anchor links where possible and it makes sense to do so.
  3. Automatic Spelling Correction. I can see this test in Australia. If you type what looks like a spelling mistake, Google shows the top two results as the best “Did you mean?” guesses. The SEO implication is that we now have yet another SERP where the #1 natural result has been pushed down the page.

Wynn Las Vegas Promo Code during CES

General 2 Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

If you haven’t booked a room for your visit to CES 2009 in Las Vegas, you can’t go wrong at $139/night (plus taxes) at the Wynn. The discount coupon code is RHHED07. [No, I don’t get a commission from them] :lol:

Here is a direct link to the Wynn Reservation form.

The rates are valid for the month of January but the cheapest rooms at $129 are gone for the CES period. Suites begin at $149.

CntrStg at CES 2009

Marketing No Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

CntrStg is a big improvement (at least in terms of location) over other blogger activities held in previous years. The venue during CES 2009 is the Wynn hotel, just a short walk from the LVCC. Check out the CntrStg site for details.

It’s a place where bloggers can blog (obviously) using a fast connection and meet others, including vendor reps. The companies presenting there have been requested by the attendees, so there will be a stong affiliation and a better outcome for both parties. Speaking of parties, there will be a few held at this location, but you must register in advance.

It’s the first CES I will miss, as I used to be sponsored by my user group or Microsoft over the years.

Clever HP campaign (and chance to win a prize)

Hardware Marketing No Comments
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Check out Mauricio Freitas’ Geekzone.co.nz and look for the HP competition that he’s running along with a bunch of my other friends from the Windows Featured Communities gang.

The competition doesn’t require you to visit all “50 of the world’s top bloggers”, but you increase your chances of winning up to 50 prizes if you do.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNijmnfgg60[/youtube]

In fact, this competition has been running for a while, but I just found out about it, so some of those 50 sites have ended their competitions. My former work colleague at RingCentral (to whom I consulted remotely), Gina Hughes owns Techie Diva, which has a handy list of the closing dates.

This has been a great marketing win-win for both HP and the 50 sites that will get additional sign-ups.

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